Chapter XII

. The copying of manuscripts was a lucrative profession in Italy.

[297] Tetralogus, Pertz, _Mon. Germ, scriptores_, xi. 251.

[298] The clerical schools were no less important than the lay, but less distinctive because their fellows existed north of the Alps. Cathedral schools may be obscurely traced back to the fifth century; and there were schools under the direction of the parish priests. In them aspirants for the priesthood were educated, receiving some Latin and some doctrinal instruction. So the cathedral and parochial schools helped to preserve the elements of antique education; but they present no such open cultivation of letters for their own profane sake as may be found in the schools of lay grammarians. The monastic schools are better known. From the ninth century they usually consisted of an outer school (_schola exterior_) for the laity and youths who wished to become secular priests, and an inner school (_interior_) for those desiring to become monks. At different times the monastery schools of Bobbio, Farfa, and other places rose to fame, but Monte Cassino outshone them all.

As to the schools and culture of Italy during the early Middle Ages, see Ozanam, _Les Écoles en Italie aux temps barbares_ (in his _Documents inédits, etc._, and printed elsewhere); Giesebrecht, _De literarum studiis apud Italos, etc._ (translated into Italian by C. Pascal, Florence, 1895, under the title _L’ Istruzione in Italia nei primi secoli del Medio-Evo_); G. Salvioli, _L’ Istruzione publica in Italia nei secoli VIII._, _IX._, _X._ (Florence, 1898); Novati, _L’ Influsso del pensiero latino sopra la civilità italiana del Medio-Evo_ (2nd ed., Milan, 1899).

[299] See _post_,